“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” — Matthew 7:11
God has challenged me this week with this question: “Do I believe He is just that good?” We love to sing about our Good Father in heaven, and He is good. But does my life align with the belief that God is good, no matter what? Many rich truths have surfaced anew in my time with Jesus this week, yet they all seem to lead back to this question.
Rewind a few lines in Matthew 7, and we find the words, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened” (v.7-8). ASK–ask, seek, knock. This is persistence in prayer. Jesus told us to persistently pursue Him in prayer. Prayer is not passive. Prayer is active and ongoing. James 5:16 tells us, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Sometimes it can feel like prayer receives no response and perhaps even lacks power because, in the immediacy of the moment, we don’t see any results. And, let’s be real, as a culture, we are all about the outcomes and instant gratification.
Generally, if we feel that something isn’t “working,” we pivot and devise an alternate game plan. But we simply cannot apply this approach or logic to prayer and how God is moving and answering. God’s modus operandi has often been one of working behind the scenes and His children merely catching glimpses of what He is doing. Which leads us back to the question: Do we believe God is truly good? If I believe God is good, then I can trust Him with His answer and provision. I am a mom, and I want good things for my children. It is hard to watch them struggle or endure hardships. Yet, ultimately, I can see how these things build both their character and their faith. When I offer gifts to my children for birthdays, Christmas, or for any random occasion, I do not select gifts that are harmful to them or the opposite of what they enjoy. I am a woman who is human and can mess up things royally. But when it comes to my children, I want to give them good things. How much more will God who is pure and holy and right and just and good give us as His children good gifts?!
God knows the past, present, and future. God is sovereign and His responses to our prayers will always fit within His plan. Which, again, brings us to back the question: Do I believe God is good? When He chooses to answer my prayers seemingly exactly opposite of what I have prayed, am I able to open my hands in surrender, trusting, knowing, and believing that He is good and His answers, or lack thereof, are also good? Am I able to set aside my own self and look at Him and trust His ways and His plans? Part of prayer is releasing control and trusting fully in God and His plan. My role is to ask, to seek, and to knock. To persistently pray, then release it into His most capable hands and trust God to do with it what He will. It is so easy to give up and cease praying when we feel like God isn’t answering or hasn’t answered in the way we like. How many missed blessings and opportunities for the growth of faith have passed me by because I stopped praying too soon? Or perhaps because I wasn’t looking for God’s response–only what I wanted Him to do instead.
To release it in prayer requires the humility God has been teaching me about this summer. To let go and let God requires me to humbly accept His will as good. To stop trying to manipulate the outcome I desire and receive God’s plan instead. As I ponder this concept, one word comes to mind: freedom. To take it to the Lord in prayer and leave it there sets me free. How many hours are lost worrying over what we cannot control? Is not worry merely a synonym for a lack of faith? And is not a lack of faith a sin? God is stepping on my toes a bit with this one! But, when I pray and release, I am free. I am free of trying to control the situation or even trying to control others. I am let off the hook for trying to have it all figured out. Because, it was never mine to figure out anyway. God is sovereign, not me. God knows best. Not me. Prayer is a mutual relationship with God in which He hears and responds as I speak and leave it with Him. In addition, prayer also requires listening for God and His responses.
We have lost the art of sitting in silence in prayer. Our minds are conditioned for constant distraction and intrusive thoughts. Technology has contrived countless ways that prevent us from having to be alone in our thoughts and okay with the quiet. Yet it is often in the quiet when we hear God the loudest. Prayer is a discipline. It can be quite difficult to position ourselves before God in quiet and focus solely on that communication with and from Him. It requires intention. For me, journaling my prayers works best. Writing my prayers keeps my thoughts focused, but I also have to allow space to also hear from God, not just speak to Him. Running with no ear buds is also a great way for me to focus my prayers. I will spend one mile in prayer for a specific thing, and invite Jesus to meet me on the trail. Dog walks are another great way to take advantage of the quiet and pray. We must diverge from the mindset that prayer is just a means of us telling God what’s on our minds and hearts and requesting certain things from Him. We must view prayer as the gift God has given us to commune with Him, both in hearing and receiving and presenting our requests, praises, confessions, and supplications to Him.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:38-39, “And whoever does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” As we hit our knees in daily surrender and prayer, this denying ourselves for Jesus becomes easier and easier. The more we pray, the more we trust that God is good. And that He directs His goodness towards us. The more I believe in God and His goodness, the freer I feel to trust God enough to love others. I become more gracious towards others, more willing to forgive, and less self-centered because I am ever-more cognizant of God’s goodness towards me. I am a recipient of God’s good gifts, most importantly, the recipient of His grace through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is mine, and that changes everything.
To recap, this week God has challenged me to believe in His goodness, and this will impact how I pray. Ask, seek, and knock. Persistently pursue Jesus in prayer. Stay focused in prayer. Make prayer a priority. As a result, I am free. This freedom bleeds over into every area of my life. Work, family, relationships, how I spend my time, how I spend my money. Prayer changes everything because God is just that good.
The Satisfied Soul 
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